Liquid Snake
Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes
Liquid Snake is one of video games' more complex villains. Originally the end boss from Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation, he returned anew in the remake of that classic on the GameCube. He went from a low-res pixilated polygon dude to a fully-animated and motion captured character, and this breathed new life into an already classic villain. From the reactions on his face to the gestures he made with his hands, it all added a little more insight into this character's vengeful and cunning personality. However, it is debated whether or not the rerecorded dialogue is on par with the original. No matter, the difference is minor and not on the level of what George Lucas did to Star Wars. Cam Clarke is still excellent doing Liquid's voice and the performance is memorable.
If there is something that can be said about Liquid, it is that he is a persistent devil. When he said to Snake, "I won't die... not as long as you still live," he meant it. You can shoot him down in a helicopter, fire a missile into the cockpit of his Metal Gear, uppercut him off of a cliff, pump him with .50 cal machine gun lead, unknowingly infect him with a government-made assassination virus, and he still manages to be in Metal Gear Solid 2. Aside from the virus deal, all mentioned make for an exciting final sequence of boss fights.
As Liquid and Snake duke it out at the finale of the game, you began to understand the motives that drive this man who calls Snake his brother. Both he and Snake were clones of a legendary cold war soldier and Liquid was mislead to believe he was the inferior clone--referring to himself as "garbage" since the day of his birth. Suffice to say, it becomes an odd but entertaining play on the Biblical story of Cain and Abel.
Once Snake is out of the picture, his primary goal is not exactly the stereotypical global domination. He wants to threaten the US into forking over cash to fund his dream, "Outer Heaven". This is a place he claims to be his father's dream: a twisted utopia of sorts for warriors to escalate current conflicts and breed new wars. While he is blinded by this dream that he thinks will bring balance to the world, Liquid is no fool like the terrorists you see in movies. He knows all about the US's "non-negotiation" policy with terrorism. Therefore, in the process of launching the nuke, he knows the bigger threat to the government is the unveiling of a secret black project, Metal Gear. Metal Gear is a robotic tank which has the ability to launch nukes with pin-point accuracy from anywhere across the world completely undetected. If revealed to the world, it would kill the US's reputation completely, increase the build up of nukes, and spark a new cold war or World War III...
Either way, I'm sure Liquid would be happy with a new Cold War or a world run by his funded mercenary wars. Of course, by defeating Liquid, Snake shatters the plan and rescues the girl. However, if you watch the trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4, it looks like Liquid has found another way to realize his goal...
So, the struggle between the brother of light and dark continues, but unfortunately it seems GameCubers won't be able to see it resolved on a Nintendo console. Of course, maybe Snake and Liquid will be able to fight it out again in a Smash Bros Brawl on Wii... hey, we can dream, right?
